Emergent Themes at SEC-Marin 2017 Conference

As of October 31, 2017, 32 people joined the WindTunneling project and shared 78 ideas and 23 responses. Most of the ideas were submitted under the Category ‘other’ showing off the diversity of thinking being generated by the speakers. Papillon Consultative Consulting partners present at the conference also logged ideas from speakers primarily from the morning sessions, acting as ears of the participants, relaying ideas in the software.

There were four clear clusters of contributions:

‣ Status of individual citizens

‣ Responsibilities of Communities of place/employment/interest

‣ Targets/Focus for action

‣ National/International leadership

Several ideas fell across these boundaries for example: equity of individuals within a community and climate change mitigation through national mobilization. The Conference emergent outcomes could be illustrated as four interlocking circles.

From such an image, it can be deduced that the greatest impact for improvement will be made by addressing the ideas that fall into more than one area because of their potential for leveraging multiple positive improvements.

Nine themes, listed on the following pages, have been identified out of the contributions submitted in the Generate Ideas stage of the WindTunneling software program. These themes are available for rating in terms of value to an individual business and their potential contribution to the Marin community’s sustainability strategies, in the Assess Ideas stage of WindTunneling. This could be an activity that SEC- Marin 17 may want to pursue.

A strong theme that emerged from the different ideas was community. It pervaded throughout many comments ranging from politics to energy grid. It appears to be the condition for initiatives to have a chance to succeed. The underlying theme to community is personal engagement, and accountability, and how each of us needs to stand up, get out of our comfort zone if we really want to have an effect on the whole. An image we could use is an installation of domino tiles. Personal engagement as a citizen, or a consumer is what makes relevant and effective conscious companies who weave values other than profits into their raison d’être.

An action item to carry forward is one that could enable initiatives and innovations to succeed is to build a real sense of community.

Nine themes emerged from the generating ideas:

1) Becoming a “We”:Improve cohesion between networks across Marin community to harness the power of the community, reduce fragmentation.

2) A Mother Earth rating for companiesCreate a new sustainability certificate that informs the community about how a company's management, processes, products, and supply and distribution networks meet standards required to sustain our planet into the future.

3) Climate Change is a major security risk:Approaching climate change as a risk to the future security and wellbeing of every American allows us to change our focus. Addressing climate change becomes then a reason for collaboration, compromise and investment across every form of community diversity.

4) Transparency needs to be a core value:It is nearly impossible for a citizen to know and understand the influences that shape each aspect of sustainability. The intrigue, opaqueness, and confusion over the common good could be reduced if transparency of intent and behavior became the value we were all assessed on. Marin and its businesses should become a model for community transparency.

5) Equity is essential to sustainability:Whether it be conversations about sustainability, design and development of new products or presentation of achievement awards, evidence of equitable engagement and outcomes should be paramount.

6) Having a place to call home is a starting point:While often seen as the American dream, a home is also at the heart of sustainability. The security engendered in individuals and families by having a home releases the concern for the common good that underpins sustainability initiatives.

7) Significant impact on Marin County: Marin County has the largest elder population in the state. Inter-generational opportunities for exchange care and knowledge could expand more. Many goals exist, how many will be put into effect?

8) Citizen support for innovators: Innovators are often isolated from the community because of their dedication to their innovative activities. However an innovation needs a community to enable its adoption and implementation. Ideas like a mini- grid; electric farm vehicles and implements; methane digester; etc. can too easily get lost unless there is a group of citizens who nurture the idea and encourage the innovator. This is not about money, its about supporting Marin's creative thinkers and doers.

9) Use enterprise stated values to assess achievements: Annual reviews need to incorporate, as part of the bottomline's achievements, progress made in terms of implementing and sustaining the business' stated values.

The original document is longer than the above portions, but due to formatting issues, it is best to download the rest of the document in order to read it. You can download it here.